Sen. Bernie Sanders has seemingly struggled to address recent allegations that Russia's campaign to interfere in the 2016 presidential election included a plan to boost his Democratic primary campaign.

For well over a year, it was alleged that Moscow's meddling mainly was meant to boost now-President Trump and harm then-Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

A bombshell Feb. 16 indictment filed against 13 Russian nationals in Robert Mueller's Russia probe bolstered those allegations, in stunning detail -- but also said the Russians sought to help Sanders.
Russian nationals, the indictment said, “engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump.”

The details create an awkward situation for the Vermont senator, as he is seen to be positioning himself for a potential 2020 White House run.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team indicted 13 Russian nationals on Feb. 16, 2018 for interfering in the 2016 presidential election. (Reuters)

Sanders, however, has yet to give a clear response on whether he and his campaign were aware of, or took action to address, the interference -- like Russian bot social media accounts allegedly supporting his campaign. Instead, Sanders, I-Vt., has tried to shift the scrutiny toward Clinton’s campaign for not doing more to prevent Russian meddling.

“The real question to be asked is what was the Clinton campaign [doing about Russian interference]? They had more information about this than we did,” Sanders said in an interview last week with Vermont Public Radio. “They were supporting my campaign? No. They were attacking Hillary Clinton’s campaign and using my supporters against Hillary Clinton.”

One episode in the indictment involved Russian nationals allegedly circulating in February 2016 an internal “outline of themes for future content to be posted to organization-controlled social media accounts.”

13 RUSSIAN NATIONALS INDICTED FOR INTERERING IN US ELECTIONS

“Specialists were instructed to post content that focused on ‘politics in the USA’ and to ‘use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump –we support them),” the documents said.

Sanders claimed in the radio interview, and again on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” that a campaign aide shared information with the Clinton campaign about suspected anti-Clinton Russian trolls on a campaign Facebook page.

“A guy who was on my staff … checked it out and he went to the Clinton campaign, and he said, ‘You know what? I think these guys are Russians,’” Sanders said. His former campaign manager Jeff Weaver said the senator’s comments were based on news reports, specifically one by NBC’s San Diego affiliate that suggested a campaign volunteer brought the findings to the Clinton team.

Politico, however, reported that the 'staffer' Sanders was referring to, John Mattes from San Diego, was just a volunteer -- and did not receive any direction from Sanders or campaign staff, but rather communicated on his own with a Clinton-backing super PAC.

The Clinton campaign denied receiving information from the Sanders campaign on the issue of Russian influence. (AP)

The Clinton campaign itself denied receiving information from Sanders' campaign on the issue, telling Politico that no one from Sanders’ campaign reached out.

Weaver later told Politico that Sanders did not have any firsthand knowledge that that happened.
A spokesperson for Sanders did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

Interesting that you call the "help anyone but Hillary" attitude the Russians had as collusion by Sanders, yet you are constantly denying Trump colluded with the Russians when they were clearly helping Trump as well. Hypocrisy much?

Starting to look to me like the Russians may have simply been trying to start a national argument over whether they interfered, with their goal being to divide, distract, and disrupt, if so they have succeeded. The real interference is all the continuing bullcrap over this.

It is shady for anyone in US politics to work with Russians, however, my feeling since this thing started has been if you are dumb enough to allow Russians to sway your vote via social media then your vote isn't worth a damn anyway. If the Russians were playing both sides then it was an equal handicap and not worth the noise.

No Russian propaganda influenced my decisions, or those of anyone paying attention to the world outside of Facefook.

quote:Interesting that you call the "help anyone but Hillary" attitude the Russians had as collusion by Sanders, yet you are constantly denying Trump colluded with the Russians when they were clearly helping Trump as well. Hypocrisy much?

"Interesting that you call the "help anyone but Hillary" attitude"

That is your assumption, not mine.

The Russians "helping" Donald Trump is the fake narrative by the Democrats and the corrupt liberal media No evidence, no documents and no witnesses exist to support that lie.

The Russians were also organizing rallies against Donald Trump. That idiot Michael Moore attended one in NYC.

quote:Interesting that you call the "help anyone but Hillary" attitude the Russians had as collusion by Sanders, yet you are constantly denying Trump colluded with the Russians when they were clearly helping Trump as well. Hypocrisy much?

"Interesting that you call the "help anyone but Hillary" attitude"

That is your assumption, not mine.

The Russians "helping" Donald Trump is the fake narrative by the Democrats and the corrupt liberal media No evidence, no documents and no witnesses exist to support that lie.

The Russians were also organizing rallies against Donald Trump. That idiot Michael Moore attended one in NYC.

It's the narrative of the Fox News article you posted.

"For well over a year, it was alleged that Moscow's meddling mainly was meant to boost now-President Trump and harm then-Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

A bombshell Feb. 16 indictment filed against 13 Russian nationals in Robert Mueller's Russia probe bolstered those allegations, in stunning detail -- but also said the Russians sought to help Sanders."

Key words - BUT ALSO

that means the Russians were not only helping Trump BUT ALSO Sanders.

Russians wanted anyone but Hillary. They tied to help Trump and also Sanders. But yet you claim, without a shred of evidence, that Sanders colluded with the Russians, yet you keep insisting that Trump had no collusion.

I don't know if Trump colluded with Russia or not, but their sure seems to be an awful lot of Trump/Russia connections, and he sure appeared to be obstructing justice to hide something.

No matter who the Russians tried to help or not, why won’t the President do anything about it? Does he care if there is foreign influence on future elections? We already know his supporters don’t care.

This thread is a transparent attempt to keep this scam alive. You focus on this issue more than anyone else here. You are desperate to keep this scam alive. Why?

You posted an article from a rightwingnut news source that is desperate to keep this scam alive. The article is grasping at straws, based on hearsay from a campaign volunteer, and you seize on it as if it is proof that Bernie Sanders was in cahoots with the Russians, who by the way aren't communist at all, they are run by pure capitalist mob thugs.

If you aren't a Russian troll, you certainly do seem to be easily programmed by them.

This thread is a transparent attempt to keep this scam alive. You focus on this issue more than anyone else here. You are desperate to keep this scam alive. Why?

You posted an article from a rightwingnut news source that is desperate to keep this scam alive. The article is grasping at straws, based on hearsay from a campaign volunteer, and you seize on it as if it is proof that Bernie Sanders was in cahoots with the Russians, who by the way aren't communist at all, they are run by pure capitalist mob thugs.

If you aren't a Russian troll, you certainly do seem to be easily programmed by them.

The beauty of the claim of "Sanders collude, Trump didn't" is that 4 people from the Trump campaign have been indicted with some of the charges concerning crimes committed while working on the campaign. Nobody from Sanders campaign has been indicted for anything.

It enrages Muleman that Obama, a black man, is way smarter, way richer, and can speak better than he can. Obama makes Mule feel like the bottom rung of the American social ladder and that scares the sh*t out of him. Instead of working harder, he blames others for his shortcomings. Sad!

quote:Isn't that a blatantly racist assumption, if you have never seen him in person?

What is your definition of blatant racism? If a white person wants to date/marry within their own race, that is blatant racism, is it not? On the racism scale from 1-100, with 100 being the KKK and 1 being someone choosing to marry within their own race, I’ll give my post a 2 on the racism scale.

Touché. This racism scale is a sound thought experiment. It assumes racism as a given - which is overwhelmingly the case, unless you were raised in the town of Blissville, Hippytopia - then challenges us to gauge our thoughts and actions within a context of racist behavioral parameters.

This is a difficult if not impossible task for the racist who is so ignorant that he claims not to be racist. These types generally mount the biggest defense that they are not racist, while lesser racists tend to be able to recognize racist programming in themselves.

As to your rating of 2, it would seem more fitting that identifying someone's race based on political comments would merit a score somewhat higher, not drastically so, but more like around a 9 - 12ish .

A score of 2 is more on the order of finding yourself surprised when you are talking to an African-American acquaintance and discover he is a huge fan of 80's white hair bands like Poison, which happened to me last week, and I had to pause and check my racism scale, which was a 2. I was somewhat taken aback to hear him tell me that Rikki Rocket kicks ass. While here I am totally into reggae, african music, blues, jazz and hip-hop.

quote:As to your rating of 2, it would seem more fitting that identifying someone's race based on political comments would merit a score somewhat higher, not drastically so, but more like around a 9 - 12ish .

Well, it’s based on a lot more than his political beliefs. But let’s meet in the middle and give my post a 5?

quote:A score of 2 is more on the order of finding yourself surprised when you are talking to an African-American acquaintance and discover he is a huge fan of 80's white hair bands like Poison, which happened to me last week, and I had to pause and check my racism scale, which was a 2. I was somewhat taken aback to hear him tell me that Rikki Rocket kicks ass. While here I am totally into reggae, african music, blues, jazz and hip-hop.

LOL, yes, I think any American would be shocked to hear a black guy analyzing the guitar work of Rikki Rocket. I had a moment like this too. In college, we went off campus to a bar in the city. On stage was a black guy wearing a tight pink t-shirt, a cowboy hat, singing country. And this was in the mid 90s. My buddy and I looked at each other and said, “Now I’ve seen everything.”

In all seriousness, I learned a while back that most things exist at a degree on a large scale, especially racism. The term “that’s racist”, can mean a million different things. We don’t realize it, but our criminal justice system applies this logic in every case. Every detail of the crime is weighed to decide the verdict and sentence. Two people can be convicted of the same exact crime, in the same town, but receive much different sentences because of how the judge weighs the degree of the crime. It’s a necessary task in order to make sane, rational, and fair decisions .

The ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND name, The ALLMAN BROTHERS name, likenesses, logos, mushroom design and peach truck are all registered trademarks of THE ABB MERCHANDISING CO., INC. whose rights are specifically reserved. Any artwork, visual, or audio representations used on this web site CONTAINING ANY REGISTERED TRADEMARKS are under license from The ABB MERCHANDISING CO., INC. A REVOCABLE, GRATIS LICENSE IS GRANTED TO ALL REGISTERED PEACH CORP MEMBERS FOR The DOWNLOADING OF ONE COPY FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. ANY DISTRIBUTION OR REPRODUCTION OF THE TRADEMARKS CONTAINED HEREIN ARE PROHIBITED AND ARE SPECIFICALLY RESERVED BY THE ABB MERCHANDISING CO.,INC.